Faith Reflections

Proverbs 19: Advice

Better a poor man who walks in his integrity than he who is crooked in his ways and rich.

Yesterday we reflected on the paradox present in Jesus’ life and words; today we hear solid advice on the inversion we find between wealth and poverty. We cannot change our heredity and life’s circumstances are sometimes difficult to accept and navigate; yet somewhere inside us we look and hope for better outcomes than the ones we see looming before us. We want to change attitudes and behaviors yet all we can change is ourselves . . . and these changes come after much self-examination and brutal honesty. Life-altering transformation is usually painful, and always worth the struggle when we keep God at the center of all things.

He who gains intelligence is his own best friend; he who keeps understanding will be successful.

Intelligence and folly are qualities we constantly evaluate in ourselves and others. We judge; we are judged by others. Sometimes we are too critical and at other times we discern too little. We dance between the surface and the depths of our emotions looking for pat answers to complicated questions. True balance coming from wisdom is rarely found, and always worth nurturing when we stumble upon it.

Humility, fidelity, integrity and understanding . . . pride, anger, deceit and laziness. Life presents us with lesson plans to identify and sort these qualities, and to cultivate in ourselves and others or to avoid them altogether.

Punishment, instruction, children revering parents, parents respecting children, generations passing along practical advice and warnings so that humanity might improve its lot and learn from our shared experiences. Some of us are able to learn vicariously; others cannot.

Jesus teaches in parables while the writers of proverbs give us plain, personal, honest views of their lives. This advice and these warnings come to us not from a sense of superiority or egotism but from a genuine desire to see people progress, and from an authentic love for humanity.

The advice we read in scripture is meant to serve as more than an instrument we might use to avoid the repetition of errors; and it may be difficult to take in and even more difficult to use, but it is something we are free to accept or to decline. The words we read today – once we make them part of our thinking – have the power to convert our bitterness into joy and our anger into love. These words – once we use them to construct personal lessons for change – may liberate us from negative thinking; they may forestall unhelpful reactions. These words may be more important than we know . . . and more significant than we imagine. We have only to take them in and make them our own.

And so we pray . . .

Dear and good Lord, help us to discern the lesson you have in mind for us today. Guide us in examining ourselves without creating overwhelming guilt. Help us to serve as good sounding boards for friends who accompany us on our journey. Steer me away from arrogance, false witness and rash judgment. Preserve us from the harmful qualities we read about today: sloth, arrogance, anger, envy, greed, pride, and the temptation to lie. Nurture in us the qualities Jesus shows us always: compassion, constancy, empathy, generosity, humility, and steadfastness. May we understand that to stand in awe of you and your works is a privilege. Grant that we understand your mercy and in turn bestow it on others. May we come to live in your spirit, always taking in the ample advice you give us in our journey home to you. Amen.